2009 Lawyer-Police clash: Madras HC stays summons issued to 31 Advocates

The Madras High Court today stayed the summons issued by an Additional Metropolitan Magistrate to 31 advocates named as accused in the case pertaining to clashes between lawyers and the police within the High Court in 2009..Justice AD Jagdish Chandra issued the interim stay in a plea moved by advocate S Mahendran, also arraigned as an accused in the matter. The Court has also issued notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which has been handling the investigation in the case..The case pertains to violent clashes which took place between lawyers and the police on February 19, 2009. An attempt to arrest certain advocates reportedly involved in an attack on the then Janata Party President, Subramanian Swamy, had triggered a riot between lawyers and the police instead. The ensuing melee also led to a sitting Madras High Court judge being injured when he attempted to intervene..Today’s stay comes a day after the Additional Metropolitan Magistrate summoned the 31 advocates accused to be present before it on February 28 for further proceedings. The summons was issued on the basis of an interim final report filed by the CBI..The plea filed by Mahendran, however, challenges this interim report as being a mockery of the investigation, which has been designed to harm the legal fraternity with false accusations. The petition states,.“The charges alleged against the petitioner is nothing but vague and it is only a cover up for the…acts done by the police on that day. The entire incident was videographed and telecasted live by the media which was viewed by the entire country… contrary to the video clips the respondent had filed this impugned interim final report against the petitioner and other advocates with an intention to malign the entire legal fraternity.“.It has also been pointed out that the investigation against the police officials is not complete and the final report in this regard is yet to be filed. The petition goes on to contend that unless a full-fledged charge sheet is filed, the truth of the matter will not come out. Therefore, the petitioner prayed that the interim final report be set aside and the proceedings before the Magistrate be stayed..“…if the impugned interim final report is not set aside and a full-fledged investigation is not ordered by this Hon’ble Court no truth will come out into this unprecedented gory incident and the innocent legal fraternity…will be victimised and the offend[ing] police officials will go scot-free from the clutches of the law… they will always think as usual they are above the law and none can do nothing on them… this leads to deterioration of the law”, states the petition..The matter has been adjourned for a period of four weeks.